Something
by Loopy Darling
Summary: Missing scene from season 4 premiere. Just a moment between Lex and Chloe. Lex has found something in Chloe Sullivan. Not much, but something.


Title: Something

Author: Loopydarling

Summary: Missing scene from season 4 premiere. Just a moment between Lex and Chloe. Lex has found something in Chloe Sullivan. Not much, but something.  
Warnings/Spoilers: Contains some season 3 spoilers, but nothing specific enough to ruin any episodes.  
Disclaimer: Chloe, Lex, Smallville, Clark, etc. are not mine. All that I own are the words below.

Silence filled the car, like the invisible embodiment of discomfort, as they finally entered Smallville. The soundlessness was louder than the purr of the car's engine as they drove along the straight country roads. Lex glanced at his passenger, as if to make sure that he was not alone, and he was not. Chloe Sullivan sat staring out at the dark night sky with eyes that seemed to be seeing something much further than the moon. She had not said a word to him since leaving the hospital where he had found her, dropped off by a handsome young man with dark hair (according to nurse Dolores.) He could almost hear a voice whispering in his ear. Clark. Dark and malicious, and almost frightening.

Clark.

The name, he was sure, would haunt him until his dying day. The handsome young man with dark hair. His best friend, only friend, hero, mystery, puzzle… Liar. Betrayer. Threat. At one time, Lex had known the difference, or thought he had. Now he knows that there is no line between best friend and worse enemy except the distance kept from one another. He remembered the way Clark told him, insisted to him, that he had not been near the caves that day when the meteors hit. He remembered the lie upon his best-friend's face, and it burned. It almost killed him that, even now that he knew Clark could no longer be trusted to tell the truth, it still hurt so much when he didn't. He was certain that if he were not to know his friend so well, then he would not have seen the evasive look behind his eyes. Would not have know that he was being lied to so openly, and without hesitation. He could not have felt half so bad afterwards if he thought for just one second that Clark had never been near the caves.

It never would have crossed his mind that Clark could have saved Chloe, and left him behind.

Even though it seemed irrelevant now, (Clark never would have left Chloe stranded in the Yukon even if he were capable of doing so,) Lex remembered feeling in his stomach when the thought had crossed his mind within the walls of the wasted Kent kitchen. He resented Clark for that moment, and would for a long time to come. Lex Luthor doesn't let things drop. Even if he didn't take Chloe and leave Lex behind, he had been there and done nothing for either of them, which was almost worse.

He remembered Clark's name, a questioning sigh on Chloe's rosy lips, when he had awakened her.

"Clark?" (sigh) He remembered the confused and alert tone in which his own name had passed those same lips. She was obviously wary of him, and he honestly didn't know if she had cause. She knew something… he was not sure what, but it was something that he wanted. Could he weasel it out of her? He had certainly not hesitated in sending Lana a newspaper practically advising her of the blackmail to come, and she didn't even have anything he desired at the moment. He had dragged Chloe down to the caves at the risk of her life, so it should not be a real struggle for him to… give her something to think about. Somehow he couldn't formulate of any kind of plan.

They had spent the entire flight from the Yukon to Metropolis in silence, and the drive back to Smallville from there was turning out very much the same.

Despite appearances, and despite the number of times he had put her life at risk, Lex kind of… liked Chloe Sullivan. Not only was she smart, and sassy and challenging… she had trusted him in her own little way. Last year, she had come to him out of fear, but she had put her life and the life of her father in his hands willingly. Many people had backed down in terror before taking the stand against Lionel Luthor on much smaller charges than murder. Chloe had stood up, had come to him, had helped him and trusted him to take care of her. Twice. Although he still had no memory of the seven weeks prior to having his brain fried at Belle Reve, Chloe had told him about how she had come to him for protection then. He supposed a small part of him, no matter how strong or powerful he became, would always enjoy the feeling of taking care of someone.

He had grown fond of her, and their interaction on his brief visits during the weeks she spent in hiding last summer. If not friends, they could at least hold a decent conversation. Sadly, he was sure that era had ended. The last tie of friendship he had was broken beyond repair before he even noticed. If the betrayal between himself, Clark, and Lana had made him angry, then this silence between himself and Chloe was the proverbial straw the broke the camel's back - not painful in itself, but on top of other things far too annoying for what it was worth.

He took another glance at her from the corner of his eye. Her position had not changed. Her short blonde hair was pushed back behind her ear, and her face exposed to the light of the full moon, which cast a lovely glow across her fair skin. She wasn't frowning exactly, but looked depressed and contemplative, those pretty lips of hers curved downwards ever so slightly at the corners. He knew she was upset, for he had never actually seen her sit still for this long, but while he studied her face he realized that Chloe Sullivan was kind of beautiful when she was sad. He frowned himself, and turned back to face the road. He was going to find out what she knew. Just because she was pretty, didn't mean he had to start being nice. Besides they only had about 15 minutes before reaching her home. (The doctors in Canada had assured them that she would be fine at home with plenty of bed rest and fluids)

"Chloe." he said, not asking for her attention, but taking it. She turned her face from the glass to look at him.

"What?" She didn't ask this harshly, as he would have expected, but very neutrally. As if she were speaking with a stranger. Not that it mattered as long as she was talking.

"Why did you think that it was Clark in the hospital?" he asked, just as he had when he first arrived there to find her.

"Why did you do such a broad search on me as to have found me in that hospital?" she countered, knowing the answer perfectly well. He had wanted answers and tracked them down in her. He may have detected a flash of annoyance in her eyes. He was not sure what it was that was annoying her though, and didn't really care all that much. He needed her to confirm it for him. Needed her to tell him that Clark had been there in that cave. He craved that solid, iron clad proof that he had been lied to.

"I was worried about your safety." He was pleased with himself that he let none of his annoyance with her show. "I mean, we did get caved in together and I woke up alone. Checking hospitals seemed like the logical approach. I have extensive resources. Coming across you, in Canada no less, was purely a mystifying fluke."

"Stop the car." She said, her face blank but her eyes angry. He was shocked.

"Pardon?"

"Stop the car Lex. I know where we are, I can walk home from here." And she was serious! He couldn't wrap his mind around what he possibly could have said to make her want to trudge all the way home by foot rather than ride with him.

"What? Chloe, there's a good hour's walk back to your home from here, and you're sick. I can get you there in 10 minutes." He told her, however he did slow down slightly.

"I would rather take my chances on foot thank you very much." She snarled, real emotion bursting through for the first time.

"Chloe, although I understand you don't want to talk about Clark, I don't see what I could have said to make you want to kill yourself. You're too weak, and I'm not letting you out of this car until we're in your driveway." She stared at him for what seemed like minutes, although it was no longer than a few seconds, studying him as he clenched his jaw and turned back to the road ahead.

Silence stretched out between them once more as he drove on. She was moody, and it frustrated him. Lex didn't want to snap at her, and then regret it later. He would get information out of her, whether or not he got it tonight.

Months in the future, when he and Clark no longer spoke except to exchange insults, and his destiny seemed set in stone, Lex would look back on this moment and wonder why he didn't press her for information when he had the chance. She was trapped with him in the moving car, tired, and weak. He could have at least kept questioning her. At that time in the not so distant future he tried to convince himself it was because he was too annoyed to deal with her.

It had nothing to do with the dark circles under her eyes. And it most definitely had nothing to do with the world weary look in her shuttered gaze. He would never admit to seeing himself as she saw him, in that moment.

Perhaps he was still protecting her afterall. Not because he wanted to shelter her, but because he liked the feeling of knowing he was doing just that.

So they continued on without words until they reached the driveway. He expected her to leap from the vehicle the instant it stopped, but she remained staring out the windshield with blank eyes.

It was his chance. He wanted to says something… demand answers. As it turned out, he didn't need to. She spoke to him first, still staring out the window.

"Lex, do you ever think that maybe the reason you have nobody to trust, is that no-one can trust you?"

Of course he had thought about it. He thought about it everyday. He thought about it when he dragged Chloe into the caves, the thought about it when Clark lied to him with such finesse, he thought about it when Helen sent him to what she thought would be his death on their wedding day, he thought about it when Lucas came to town and tried to take his place, he thought about it even as a child, when his father walked into the nursery to find a trembling Lex holding a pillow above his lifeless little brother. He had decided he didn't really care anymore.

"Trust too much and you tend to get burned," he replied.

She finally met his gaze at this, a small smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"Spoken like the devil you never wanted to be," she said, with what he suspected was a hint of disappointment in her tone. "Lionel would be proud."

Lex didn't respond to the jibe. It was an obvious one. He was almost disappointed in her for thinking the idea of becoming his father ate at his heart anymore. He had learned to embrace his destiny. So fuck Chloe Sullivan and her disappointed tone. He didn't need to protect her anymore, she had Clark for that.

She got out of the car, sensing that it would be her last chance to speak with him before lines were drawn in the sand. Chloe could feel the storm brewing on the horizon and when it came down to Clark Kent versus Lex Luthor, they both knew which side she would be on.

She didn't look at him again when she spoke.

"No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence." she quoted.

"T.S. Eliot," he confirmed, but she had already closed the door and began walking away.

As Lex drove along the streets of Smallville in solitude, he thought over what she said and had to chuckle a little.

One thing he could always trust in would be the brazeness of Chloe Sullivan. He trusted her to always tell him where he stood with complete honesty and without hesitation. He could always trust her to side with those she loved, it didn't bother him to much he wasn't included in that number. Perhaps he didn't trust her with the deepest secrets of his soul. Perhaps he didn't even have a soul, but he could always trust her, no matter how bad things could get, to always be Chloe Sullivan. He respected her for that. He could even say he was a little awed sometimes at her sense of self.

That was something, right?

Maybe despite all of the people he wanted, the people he hated, and the ones he had always wanted to love him so that he could see what it felt like, he had found some type of salvation in the strangest of places. Chloe Sullivan was never someone he considered family, she was never a lover, or even a friend really. She was the one person in whom he had any form of trust, any shred of reverence. He was pretty much okay with that.

Maybe Lex Luthor wasn't so desolate afterall.

The end.

Hope you guys liked it. I started this the day that episode aired and I set it aside and didn't finish it. Rewriting it now it's become a whole new story. Let me know what you think!

Review please:)


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